History

Pre-history

The early history of Burundi, and especially the role and nature of the country’s three dominant ethnic groups; the Twa, Hutu, and Tutsi, is highly debated amongst academics. What is important to remember is that the nature of culture and ethnic groups is always fluid and changing. While the groups might have migrated to the area at different times and as distinctly different ethnic groups, the current distinctions are contemporary socio-cultural constructs. In recent Burundi history, these divisions have been used for political mobilization. This means that there is the reality of everyday life with no clear boundaries between the different groups, but the identities of Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa are emphasized and made distinct when the political situation calls for it. There is, however, evidence that the groups settled in the area of Burundi at different times and in different waves. It is believed that the Twa was the earliest people in the area, and were predominantly hunters and gatherers. It is estimated that the first Bantu-speaking peoples settled in the area which now constitutes Burundi in about 800 CE.

The Tutsi, a nomadic pastoral people, gradually subjugated the Hutu and other inhabitants of the region, although they adopted the Hutu language, as did the Twa so all three groups were Bantu-speaking. A feudal social system based on caste—the conquering of Tutsi and the subjected Hutu—became the dominant feature of social hierarchy, and especially of economic and political relations. The Hutu did the farming and grew the food in return for cattle, but generally had no part in government. The Tutsi were the ruling caste and did no manual labor. To a certain extent, however, the castes were open to each other. Custom allowed a particularly worthy Twa or Hutu to rise to the rank of a Tutsi; conversely, an impoverished Tutsi who had fallen from his former estate could be assimilated into the Hutu.

The penetration of an eventual conquest by the Tutsi was reported as a slow and peaceful process that initiated a process of political integration. The ownership of land was gradually transferred from the Hutu tribes to the Mwami, the semi-divine king of the Tutsi. The first Mwami, Ntare I Rushatsi, is thought to have come to power in the 16th century. While the ruling Mwami Twa, in theory, was an absolute king, he was often regarded as primus inter pares among the Ganwa, prince-like aristocrats of royal lineage. But the Mwami had his court and his army, and he could not easily be removed from office.

The Burundi Kingdom

The earliest state with a direct continuity with the modern state of Burundi was the Kingdom of Burundi. The kingdom was founded sometime around the 16th century CE. Some academics believe that a shortage of land created an increased conflict over cattle to be used as lobola and that this created a class of warriors amongst the mainly Tutsi people who practiced pastoralism. This warrior class would dominate the mostly farming Hutu people and founded the Kingdom of Burundi. After a period of expansion, the Kingdom of Burundi cemented its borders in the late 1600 CE. The kings of Burundi were referred to as Mwami, meaning ruler. The kingdom was strictly hierarchical and ruled by a king with several princes beneath him. The royal court was made up of the Tutsi-Banyaruguru and they had a higher social status than other pastoralists such as the Tutsi-Hima. In the lower levels of this society were generally Hutu people, and at the very bottom was the Twa. The system had some fluidity however and some Hutu people belonged to the nobility and had some say in the functions of the state.

The king, known as the Mwami (translated as the ruler) headed a princely aristocracy (Ganwa) that owned most of the land and required a tribute, or tax, from local farmers (mainly Hutu) and herders (mainly Tutsi). The Kingdom of Burundi was characterized by hierarchical political authority and tributary economic exchange. In the mid-18th century, the Tutsi royalty consolidated authority over land, production, and distribution with the development of the Ubugabire—a patron-client relationship in which the populace received royal protection in exchange for tribute and land tenure. By this time, the royal court was made up of the Tutsi-Banyaruguru, they had a higher social status than other pastoralists such as the Tutsi-Hima. In the lower levels of this society were generally Hutu people, and at the very bottom of the pyramid was the Twa. The system had some fluidity however, some Hutu people belonged to the nobility and in this way also had a say in the functioning of the state.

The classification of Hutu or Tutsi was not merely based on ethnic criteria alone. Hutu farmers that managed to acquire wealth and livestock were regularly granted the higher social status of Tutsi, some even made them become close advisors of the Ganwa. On the other hand, there are also reports of Tutsi that lost all their cattle and subsequently lost their higher status and were called Hutu. Thus, the distinction between Hutu and Tutsi was also a socio-cultural concept, instead of a purely ethnic one. There were also many reports of marriages between Hutu and Tutsi people. In general, regional ties and tribal power struggles played a far more determining role in Burundi’s politics than ethnicity.

Colonial German

European explorers and missionaries made brief visits to the area as early as 1856, and they compared the organization of the kingdom of Burundi with that of the old Greek empire. It was not until 1899 that Burundi became a part of German East Africa. Unlike the Rwandan monarchy, which decided to accept the German advances, the Burundian king Mwezi IV Gisabo opposed all European influence, refusing to wear European clothing and resisting the advance of European missionaries or administrators. In 1871, Stanley and Livingstone landed at Bujumbura and explored the Ruzizi River region.

From 1884, the German East Africa Company was active in the African Great Lakes region. As a result of heightened tensions and border disputes between the German East Africa Company, the British Empire, and the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the German Empire was called upon to put down the Abushiri revolts and protect the empire’s interests in the region. The German East Africa Company transferred its rights to the German Empire in 1891, in this way establishing the German colony of German East Africa, which included Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania (formerly known as Tanganyika). The German Empire stationed armed forces in Ruanda and Burundi during the late 1880s. The location of the present-day city of Gitega served as an administrative center for the Ruanda-Urundi region.

Subsequently, other explorers, principally German, visited Burundi. After the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, the German zone of influence in East Africa was extended to include Rwanda and Burundi. The Kingdom of Burundi lost its independence after they were conquered by Germany in the late 19th century. The German Empire established its first military post in Burundi in 1896. After 1899 Burundi was known as the military district of Ruanda-Urundi under German colonial rule. Both German and Belgian colonial occupiers continued to rule indirectly through local kings. The last King of an independent Kingdom of Burundi was Mwami Ntare V. The Europeans did, however, bring devastating diseases affecting both people and animals. Affecting the entire region, Burundi was especially hard hit.

Colonial Belgium

After WWI, Burundi was transferred to the Belgian Empire under a League of Nations mandate after the German Empire lost in the first World War (the Great European War). The transfer took place legally on 20 October 1924From 1925 Ruanda-Urundi is linked with the neighboring Belgian Congo, but colonial rule takes a very different form in the two territories. Both the Belgian and German empires ruled Burundi through local kings in a colonial system known as indirect rule. The colonial occupiers had the final say, but local chiefs and the king had a say in issues of land and over lower sub-chiefdoms. Some scholars believe that the categories of Twa, Hutu, and Tutsi, were based upon wealth and profession up until this point the administration of the Congo is centered in Brussels, but in Ruanda-Urundi, it is left in the hands of the Tutsi aristocracy. Indeed the Belgians, observing the distinction between Tutsi and Hutu, make it the very basis of their colonial system.

From 1933 everyone in Ruanda-Urundi is issued a racial identity card, defining them as Hutu (85%) or Tutsi (14%). The remaining 1% are the Twa, the remnants of the original Pygmies indigenous in this area. This Belgian attitude, setting in stone the distinction between the two groups and favoring one of them, prepares the ground for future violence (in earlier times racially based massacres have never occurred between Hutu and Tutsi). The predictable occasion for its outbreak is the rush towards independence in the late 1950s. The problem is more immediately evident in Ruanda than in Urundi. In 1957 Hutu leaders in Ruanda publish a Hutu Manifesto, preparing their supporters for a future political conflict to be conducted entirely on ethnic lines. In 1959 the first outbreak of violence is sparked off when a group of Tutsi political activists in Gitirama beat up a Hutu rival, Dominique Mbonyumutwa.

At the end of World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a United Nations trust territory, but the Belgians were essentially left to run the show. The Belgians, in turn, continued to support mission education and also ruled through the local Tutsi chiefs. In 1955, the Belgians finally moved to end the Ubugabire system, though they only pressured the Tutsi rulers to phase it out gradually. In Urundi the Tutsi monarchy proves at first more resilient, both in holding on to the reins of power and in attempting a resolution of the Tutsi-Hutu conflict. When elections are held in 1961, they bring a landslide victory for a joint Hutu and Tutsi party. It is led by the popular Prince Rwagasore, the eldest son of the Mwami. He is assassinated a few months later before independence has been formally achieved. But this disaster does not yet tip Urundi into ethnic violence.

Independent Burundi

Burundi’s push for independence was influenced by the Rwandan Revolution and the accompanying instability and ethnic conflict that occurred there. As a result of the Rwandan Revolution, many Rwandan Tutsi refugees arrived in Burundi during the period from 1959 to 1961. Burundi’s first elections took place on 8 September 1961 and UPRONA, a multi-ethnic unity party led by Prince Louis Rwagasore won just over 80% of the electorate’s votes. In the wake of the elections, on 13 October, the 29-year-old Prince Rwagasore was assassinated, robbing Burundi of its most popular and well-known nationalist. The country claimed independence on 1 July 1962 and legally changed its name from Ruanda-Urundi to Burundi. Burundi became a constitutional monarchy with Mwami Mwambutsa IV, Prince Rwagasore’s father, serving as the country’s king.

In June 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the Hutu-dominated Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), won the first democratic election. He became the first Hutu head of state, leading a pro-Hutu government. In October 1993, Tutsi soldiers assassinated Ndadaye, an act that resulted in genocide against Tutsi, which led to years of violence between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi majority army. It is estimated that some 300,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the years following the assassination. On February 28, 2005, Burundians voted in a national referendum for the implementation of a post-transitional constitution. Pierre Nkurunziza was elected the first post-transitional president of Burundi in elections held in the summer of 2005. Nkurunziza was re-elected in 2010 and sought to be re-elected again in 2015.

In April 2015 protests broke out after the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkurunziza would seek a third term in office. Protestors claimed Nkurunziza could not run for a third term in office but the country’s constitutional court agreed with the President (although some of its members had fled the country at the time of its vote). An attempted coup d’état on 13 May failed to depose Nkurunziza. He returned to Burundi, began purging his government, and arrested several of the coup leaders. Following the attempted coup, protests however continued and over 100,000 people had fled the country by 20 May causing a humanitarian emergency. There are reports of continued and widespread abuses of human rights, including unlawful killings, torture, disappearances, and restrictions on freedom of expression.